The theme for the 2005 ASCD Annual Conference in Orlando is "Voices of Education: Unleashing the Power, Passion, and Promise." It calls upon educators to use their power to challenge, tap their passion to lead, and fulfill a promise to succeed. This column addresses the middle strand: the passion to lead.
If we have a passion for something, we don't act lightly. Most of us didn't accept our current position because we drew the short straw. Nor did we decide to lead because of the honors or benefits it would bring us. We determined to lead because we wanted to make a difference for our students, our schools, and our communities. We wanted to "leave no child behind" even before that mantra became famous (or infamous).
But having a passion for something doesn't automatically result in success. We need to know how to lead.
The late Donald Clifton, past chairman of the Gallup Organization and the Gallup International Research and Education Center, said that “a leader is a person who can rally support to move forward.” He noted that a leader should have the following traits: the ability to relate to people, a drive to execute, a capacity for feeling ownership, and high ethics. Clifton outlined seven requirements for effective leadership:
- Tend your vision. Be involved in frequent visioning and looking forward. Clifton said that true leaders "put dates and events in the calendars of others." In other words, they influence the priorities that others plan for. He hypothesized that a leader should think about the future at least 15–20 times a day.
- Turn vision into goals. Without goals, a vision can languish. A leader has to go beyond merely envisioning the future and take action to make the vision a reality.
- Mentor others toward leadership. Effective leaders know that they cannot succeed alone. Mentoring others ensures that their vision does not die if they depart the project or organization.
- Exhibit self-knowledge. Knowing one's own strengths is vital to effective leadership.
- Conceptualize. A leader needs to know her theory or "map" and continually test it. Leaders need to muse, to go off alone and think. In our fast-paced environment, taking time to reflect is regarded as a luxury; we need to acknowledge that it is a necessity.
- Share values. Others in an organization need to see consistency in a leader's actions. Our colleagues need to know we will always value and believe in certain things.
- Build a constituency. Always work to build a team and to give others ownership in the team. Clifton suggested that every day must be a campaign day if we are to succeed at reaching our vision.
Dewitt Jones, who for many years worked as an award-winning photographer for National Geographic, shares his philosophy about photography to help others understand an important aspect of realizing a vision. Jones used to embrace the maxim "I won't believe it until I see it," he notes. "Yet the more I shot for the Geographic, the more I realized that I had it backwards . . . . The way it really works is ‘I won't see it till I believe it.’ That's the way life works." An educator who has the passion to lead must possess a vision and a belief in the final outcome long before it's in sight.
Upholding Teamwork
Along with believing in a vision, a leader must believe in the power of teamwork. Poet, novelist, and essayist Marge Piercy shared that theme in her poem "The Low Road," which was reprinted in the book Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach. She says, "Alone you can fight, you can refuse, you can take revenge, but they roll over you." However, she points out, two people can fight back; three people are a delegation; four people can start an organization; and a dozen make a demonstration. She concludes:
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
Piercy's poem reminds us that the passion to lead must involve rallying others around a call. Our call is to help each student become the best person he or she can be. Our call is more important than balancing a budget, publishing a book, or launching a rocket. We deal with the lives and futures of children worldwide, and they deserve our passion to make a difference for each one of them.
